Nelle Louise Serpell

Nelle Serpell, born into Norfolk’s prominent Serpell family, was the daughter of major businessman Goldsborough McDowell Serpell. She married Stockton Heth Tyler in 1904, and their marriage was well documented in newspapers and official records. Their six children, Goldsborough, James III, Sue, Nell, Stockton Jr., and Gulielma, are confirmed through family notices and memorials. Nelle’s life was primarily linked to Norfolk and the Tyler property in Pulaski County, Belle Hampton, with social notices placing her residence in Radford by the 1930s and Dublin by the 1940s, where she was involved in agriculture. Her education and occupation remain unclear, though she was noted as chair of an arts committee in 1944. After her husband's death in 1943, she was involved in litigation over property, evidenced by the Virginia Supreme Court case Baird v. Tyler. She died in 1968 and was buried at Elmwood Cemetery.